Japan’s May spot LNG price down on month

The average price for spot liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargoes imported into Japan, contracted in the month of May, dropped compared to the previous month.

The contract-based price was at $8.2 per mmBtu, a 9.9 percent decrease compared to the $9.1 per mmBtu contract-based price in April, data from Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry shows. This is also the lowest price since October 2017.

Compared to the $5.7 per mmBtu recorded in May 2017, this figure rose 43.8 percent.

The price of liquefied natural gas spot cargoes arriving in May also dropped compared to the previous month. METI’s report shows the arrival-based price for the month of May was $7.9 per mmBtu, down from $8.8 in April.

Compared to May 2017, when METI reported a contracted-based price of $5.7 per mmBtu, this was a 38.6 percent increase.

Only spot LNG cargoes are taken into account in this assessments, excluding short, medium and long-term contract cargoes, as well as those linked to a particular price index.